


Machine learning

by Trash



Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: Angst, Crack, M/M, Robot AU, build your own boyfriend!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 09:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14398893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash/pseuds/Trash
Summary: The only reason Dan throws himself off the roof of their apartment building is to get Kyle’s attention.





	Machine learning

The only reason Dan throws himself off the roof of their apartment building is to get Kyle’s attention. Just like all the other times he’s acted out. This is only because Kyle got promoted at work and he has to spend more time in the office and, subsequently, less time at home with Dan. And for someone who can’t show any emotions he manages to replicate jealously pretty damn well.

Kyle doesn’t realise what has happened until he gets home from work and the flat is empty. He goes straight to the window and peers down and, sure enough, Dan is on the ground below the fire escape.

Kyle climbs down the stairs carefully, careful not to slip on the wet metal. When he gets to the ground he takes in the extent of the damage with a sigh. Dan’s legs have broken apart at the knee and his entire left arm as come off at the shoulder and is now lying in a puddle. It’ll take hours to repair him and, should Kyle have issues, he won’t be able to claim on their insurance seeing as by now Dan will be water damaged.

Carefully, he scoops Dan up, grabbing his arm from the puddle. He carries him back up the fire escape to their flat and takes him to the workshop. Before Dan, this had been Kyle’s study which was only ever really used for watching porn. Now it was a hospital room.

He makes sure to dry out Dan’s arm before he even tries to re-attach it. The wires are severed completely, and it takes hours to find the right scraps to repair them. Even when he’s put back together and functioning again Kyle can’t move his left index finger, but he guesses that’ll be Dan’s lesson learned.

He leaves him offline long enough to have a beer and a cigarette and to take a deep, deep breath. Things weren’t always this way, and they sure as hell won’t continue on this way if Kyle has anything to do with it.

When he boots Dan back up later he doesn’t say anything, just watches him sit up on the work bench and test out his joints.

“Well done,” Dan says, “you deserve a medal.”

“Fuck you,” Kyle snaps, leaning against the wall. “You’re so inconsiderate I can’t even believe it.”

“If you’re working all day, Kyle, I’m bound to need to entertain myself.”

“Stop punishing me for being promoted. We need the money that my job brings home.”

Dan is staring at his index finger, obviously trying to make it function. “I’m not punishing you for anything, Kyle. It’s understandable that you want to spend more time with humans than with me. It’s natural.”

Kyle grits his teeth and makes a fist. “I don’t want to spend more time with them. It’s a contract that I signed. Would you just fucking stop it?”

“My finger doesn’t move.”

“No,” Kyle says, pushing himself away from the wall and walking away, “you’re broken.”

***

It starts raining that night and it continues all day. Kyle drives to and from work barely being able to see beyond the windscreen and, unsurprisingly, when he gets home Dan isn’t there.

He hesitates momentarily before grabbing his car keys again and heading out. He thinks of all the places they’ve gone. Of course Kyle doesn’t have a favourite place, but Dan does, and so he heads straight for the Thames beach.

It’s impossible to see through the rain and the fog. There are no other cars in the car park and as he heads down to the sand he can’t see anybody else there. He pulls his hood up over his head for all the use it does as he heads down the beach. 

There’s a shadow in the distance and Kyle knows immediately that it’s Dan. He is standing staring out at the river, wearing only a T-shirt and jeans. He doesn’t turn his head when Kyle gets closer, doesn’t say a word.

“You’ll malfunction if you stay out here much longer,” Kyle shouts over the wind.

“I’m not broken,” Dan says.

“I know,” Kyle says as he sidles closer. “I didn’t mean it.”

“When you got me you were happy.”

“And I’m happy now. I’m just worried one day I’m going to come home one day and you won’t be repairable. I know you can’t work, that’s why I fought to be promoted. But it was the wrong decision.”

“No,” Dan says. And that’s it. Nothing else. So maybe he means, no you won’t ever find me beyond repair. Or maybe, no you made the right decision.

Kyle doesn’t push it, and eventually he plucks up the courage to speak. “Shall we go home?”

Dan nods silently and walks away, and Kyle follows.


End file.
